Overstock.com Returns to Complement Bedbathandbeyond.com

Overstock.com officially relaunched as a stand-alone website with a return to its roots around clearance items across a wide range of categories. With the return, sister banner Bed Bath & Beyond will fine-tune its focus around bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen categories.

“For the last several decades, Overstock has been one of, if not the premier name in broad category online value shopping,” said Marcus Lemonis, executive chairman of Beyond Inc., the parent of Overstock and Bed Bath & Beyond, on the company’s first-quarter analyst call in May. “And while it veered in and out of products over time, its reputation always remains strong as the place to get a crazy good deal.”

Overstock.com was rebranded to bedbathandbeyond.com soon after Overstock acquired Bed Bath & Beyond’s intellectual property out of bankruptcy proceedings in June 2023. The rebrand was seen as a way to combine Overstock’s strengths with a better-known and stronger brand name. Last October, Overstock changed its corporate name to Beyond Inc.

By February of this year, Lemonis, who’s also Camping World’s CEO and star of a CNBC reality show “The Profit,” was describing the shutdown of Overstock’s website as a “fatal mistake” to analysts on a quarterly call.

“While we were able to win the buy box on selling large items with high AOVs (average order values) as Bed Bath & Beyond, we had to do that by buying the business. Overstock.com has built a legacy on selling those types of products,” he said. “And when you try to convince people that a new brand is going to do the same thing, you lose them. Turning Overstock.com back on will not only allow Bed Bath & Beyond to expand its existing assortment and hone in on its historical legacy success, but it allows Overstock to do the same.”

Overstock in recent years had transitioned to focus on furniture and décor with the move paying dividends in the early stages of the pandemic but becoming a burden as home investments reversed in the latter stages.

With the relaunch, Overstock will continue to offer indoor and outdoor furniture, rugs, décor, and lighting while bringing back numerous categories, including apparel and footwear, jewelry and watches, sports and entertainment collectibles, home improvement, luggage, kids and baby, and pet supplies. The inventory lineup amplifies closeouts, liquidation, factory direct, and reverse logistics merchandise.

Lemonis sees Overstock becoming the go-to platform to reprocess returns for vendors. He added on Beyond’s first-quarter call, “We believe that if we can be part of improving their supply chain for the vendors on the backend, which is where the game is often won or lost, we’ll have found another way to monetize the Overstock brand again in an asset-light way.”

Meanwhile, Bed Bath & Beyond, an online-only business for now, will return to its historical categories after Beyond’s management found that the addition of historical Overstock categories, like family room furniture, large area rugs, and case goods, underperformed compared to targets for margin contribution and acquisition costs.

“Those results reaffirmed our conclusion during the quarter around the specific muscles that both brands can thrive separately while complementing each other,” said Lemonis. “We are optimistic that in its full mature state, that Bath has the potential to be north of a billion-dollar brand, with positive contribution and a higher frequency of visits, driven by our focus of life events like baby, wedding, home purchase, home renovation, college, et cetera, all the things everybody’s always known Bed Bath for. As part of that continued learning and reframing, we also believe Overstock has a clear path to return to its billion-dollar-plus revenue performance.”